Starting in Ottawa, we visited a Mi’kmaq community in Nova Scotia, a Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in community in Yukon, a Mohawk community in Quebec, and a Carrier community in the BC interior, learning along the way about the subtle and substantial power that quality data has had over the years.

The latest in FNIGC’s series of community articles is a particularly powerful one, as it examines the role that data played in changing the fortunes of an entire community.

In order to tell the transformative story of Bigstone Cree Nation, we spent two days in the sprawling Northern Alberta First Nations community where we talked with the Chief, the Directors of Health and Education, residents and an Elder. The story we came away with was about how this defiant Cree community tackled its reputation as “the sickest First Nation in Alberta” and over the course of two decades transformed itself into one of the healthiest in the province.

According to Bigstone’s Chief, the key to this significant change was simple: determination and good data.

“You have to be tough, smart, and plan for everything.” Chief Gordon Auger told us. “That’s how you move forward. It’s about hard-core politics and smart planning. I’ll tell you nobody will give you anything without information.”

The sixth in an ongoing series of articles, the latest Power of Data story unpacks the impact of quality data on life in First Nations communities across Canada, while highlighting the positive real-world impact that data from FNIGC’s surveys has had in First Nations communities over the past two decades.

The series was launched in spring 2015, and since then we’ve published six stories exploring the importance of data in First Nations communities.

You can download the latest article on our site (in English and French) here:

Power of Data Bigstone (English)

Power of Data Bigstone (French)

Do you have a Power of Data story in your community that you think we should focus on in a future story? Drop us a line at info@fnigc.ca and tell us about it.

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To Stanley Thomas, Chief of Saik’uz, oral storytelling traditions are an important means of transmitting cultural information within a family and the community as a whole.

“Data, to me, we’ve had it all our lives – but it isn’t always written down” he said. “Our data is here, in our own way, it’s in our heads.”

This article is the latest in an ongoing Power of Data series that explores the impact of quality data on life in First Nations communities across Canada, while highlighting the positive real-world impact that data from FNIGC’s First Nations Regional Health Survey (FNRHS, or RHS) has had in First Nations communities over the past two decades.

The series was launched in spring 2015, and since then FNIGC has published five stories that explore and examine the importance of quality data in First Nations communities.

You can read our latest article here The Power of Data: Saik’uz First Nation.

Do you have a Power of Data story in your community that you think we should focus on in a future story? Drop us a line at info@fnigc.ca and tell us about it.

The post New Power of Data story explores the relationship between data collection and First Nations storytelling traditions appeared first on The First Nations Information Governance Centre.